6 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



It is painful to reflect, that though our own society has now 

 been in operation over thirty years, and though premiums have 

 been regularly offered from the beginning for the best milch 

 cows, yet it is not known that any considerable permanent im- 

 provement has been made in the county, if even attempted. 

 Accidental cases of superior cows have indeed happened, a few 

 spasmodic efforts have been made to improve the breeds, and 

 our transactions have teemed with annual reports, drawn up 

 with much ability, yet who has ever heard of anything like 

 general results? Where is the Col. Jaques, of Essex county? 

 Where is our cream-pot breed of cows, some of which, in Mid- 

 dlesex, " produce nine pounds of butter in three days, on grass 

 feed only ? " where shall we find the dairy, in which the cream 

 of many cows united, "produces more than 80 per cent, of pure 

 butter," the process of churning " being performed in one min- 

 tue," nay, " in forty seconds ? " 



After so direct an allusion to the splendid experiments of 

 Col. Jaques, of Charlestown, it may not be improper to bring a 

 few facts relating to those experiments once more before the 

 people, and especially before the society. They are too apt to 

 be forgotten ; and yet they ought not to be forgotten or lost 

 sight of. That distinguished, enthusiastic breeder, (every one 

 who means to do much must have some enthusiasm,) no sooner 

 turned his attention to the subject, than he perceived that no 

 reliance could be put upon accidental cases of superior cows, 

 however superior they might be. They would begin to fall 

 back in the second generation, and be often, and indeed gen- 

 erally, miserable in the third. " A good cow may have a bad 

 calf," said the spelling book of our boyhood, and every one 

 knows that the descendant of a good cow of no particular 

 breed, may inherit the inferior properties only, of some near or 

 remote ancestor. And especially, when it is considered that 

 too many are satisfied to take any and every miserable runt of 

 a bull, it is plain that nothing could be effected in the matter 

 of improving stock in this way. Col Jaques heard of a noble 

 sized cow, raised in Groton, Mass., the first owner of which 

 knew nothing of her origin. Before coming into the hands of 

 Col. Jaques, she was owned awhile in Dorchester, by Mr. 



